Enough Is Enough: Emma Gonzales, Al Hoffman Jr., and the tipping point on gun control

What Newtown and the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords didn’t accomplish, Parkland might. Why do I say this?

Because of two people. The first is a Parkland student by the name of Emma Gonzales who has delivered an eleven minute speech that is nothing short of magnificent. The speech has been posted by Ron and Foolish Monkey. You can go to either of their blogs to see it:

I will be amazed if Ms. Gonzales isn’t invited to speak at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

The other person might be more important. He was interviewed the other day in the NYTimes. His name is Al Hoffman Jr., he’s a major Republican donor, a former Ambassador, and perhaps most importantly a former finance chair of the Republican National Committee, and he’s had enough. He has told the Republican Party that they won’t get another dime from him until they support an assault weapons ban. Further, he’s said that he intends to email other major Republican donors to get them on board.

If Hoffman succeeds, we’re looking at a very different ball game, because what the NRA has going for it is money, and that advantage could be at least partially neutralized by Hoffman’s efforts.

I suspect that if Hoffman succeeds, the dam will break very suddenly, in part due to Gonzales. This could look (God willing) a lot like what happened after then Gov. Nikki Haley came out against Confederate symbols in the aftermath of the Charleston church murders. There’s an awful lot of latent agreement out there to this position, even among the NRA membership. Politically, it could become a lot more dangerous to oppose gun control than to favor it, particularly when it comes to assault weapons.

I think we’ll know within a few days whether this is going to happen. I think if it doesn’t happen within a few days the fight will be way lengthier because the Parkland shock will blow over like Newtown did. But it won’t blow completely over, because the Parkland people are aggressive enough to keep this from disappearing and because I don’t think Hoffman is going away. At this point I think the dam breaking is more likely.

And I don’t think Trump can stop this. He won’t be central enough to this argument because he’s not the point man on gun regulation - it will happen around him. In this case, I don’t think his tweets will matter all that much.

its not going to go away. the kids are scared to death. not just the florida kids but kids across the country. Montell Williams was on a show this weekend, Friday I think, maybe Morning Joe - and apparently he is very involved with this issue and stays in touch with kids who experienced past shootings in their schools. the situation may appear to go away but children live with this reality 24/7. they suffer the aftereffects. and they're confused and depressed that they don't matter.

To me the most poignant statement Ms Gonzalez made was about the dollar value of them - what they're worth. AND THAT WITH EACH KILLING THEIR VALUE GOES DOWN. that fucking broke my heart.

Ron,I wouldn’t call her a babe, at least not in the sense you mean. I think she’s already better informed than the President. Thanks for posting that here, though the post has a link to FM’s post where it’s up.

FM,By “going away” I don’t mean be forgotten by the kids, I mean go out of the limelight enough for legislators to be able to afford to ignore going against the NRA. My guess and hope at this point is that going away is what won’t happen short term. Hoffman is a big deal because, like with Haley, this is a break from the inside. You don’t get more inside Republican campaign money than former finance chair of the RNC.

What scares me most about American politics is when I find that some people don’t have limits. This is what Trump was alluding to when he talked about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. This is why I’m more afraid of Congress than of Trump, because those are the guys who are in charge of enforcing limits, and when they don’t stop the excesses and the press doesn’t do enough to stop the excesses, there’s no one between us and the excesses except the Courts, and those guys control the Supreme Court thanks to McConnell’s refusal to vet Obama’s nominee - a terribly consequential action that neither the President nor the Press did enough to counter.

I feel a great deal of relief when a Republican hits limits. When George F. Will had had enough and just couldn’t be a shill for this unAmerican bullshit any more. Hoffman finally hit a limit, and he’s a guy in the loop where it counts most.

What I was referring to, when I mentioned Montell was the fact that the kids are organizing, they just don't know they're organizing. and now they have a spokesperson who is one of them. they have thousands of them - again, they just didnt know it. now they do. they need to come together and become a visible symbol of violent attacks our school kids.

I'm watching meet the press now. some asshat senator (langford)(douchebag), making a case for everyone having a gun but really the problem is with individuals. good grief, how do these pieces of shit look at themselves in the mirror?

the kids can make this happen. they're scared to death and they have to make it happen.